Mini cars traction on snow?

Car & Driver said the Audi TT was just barely drivable on the snow even with the Quattro. The only salvation you will find is in real snow tires. These cars are just too light to make their presence known to the road.

Calvin

Yup, what he said. Traction in snow is a function of how wide the tires are, more than anything else. Light weight plus wide tires = no traction.

nate

Their tires are too wide.

I have a 98 Neon, a subcompact. I get GOOD traction in the snow. While it is true a light car has less tractive force than a heavy one, it needs proportionally less tractive force to move it. Percent of weight (not total wieght) on drive wheels, and the particular tires, are the key. BTW, in response to the "too wide" tire comment, my car has wider tires than a standard Neon.

I have a steep drive, and when drive is snowy or icy I get up as good as, or better, than our minivan.

If they have wide tread low profile tires then yes, I would expect that in snow and very wet conditions that traction would not be very good. Another problem working against many cars is low ground clearance - they quickly bottom out in snow or the front air dam starts acting like a mini snow plow.

Even if those cars are light in relation to others they still carrry a lot of weight. With the proper tires and reasonable ground clearance they should do as well in snow as a bigger car.

With what tires? Put crappy tires on, and any car will have poor traction.

They can be. The engine being above the driving wheels means there is a good bit of mass pressing down on them.

Yup. You always will. The more mass you have over the wheels, the better traction, no matter what you're driving.

--scott

Except for a four-wheel drive. It is the percentage of weight over the drive wheels that counts, not the actual weight. In a four wheel drive vehicle, doubling weight does increase tractive force by factor of two, but also increases tractive effort needed to climb a given slope by two, or to accelerate at a given G-value.